MOUNT VERNON — After nearly 10 years at the helm of Riverside Recovery Services, executive director Amy Smart plans to retire on Oct. 1.
“For the first time in 9½ years, I think we have a really strong clinical team and a really strong leadership team,” Smart said. “That has been a blessing as I work on my exit plan.”
Smart’s son, Flint Postle, will succeed her as executive director.
“He’s been biting at the bit, ready to take this on,” Smart said.
A recovering addict herself, Smart opened Riverside’s first facility in Lawrence County in 2015. That was where she lived after spending five years in the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
She opened the Mount Vernon office in 2017.
“I came to a KSAAT (Knox Substance Abuse Action Team) conference at Kenyon College and was listening to the problems Knox County was having trying to get a handle on the drug problem,” she explained.
“I thought, ‘Now would be the perfect time to expand Riverside.’”
After opening the outpatient treatment center, Smart established the county’s first supported living home for women in January 2018.
Riverside opened a sober living home for men in July, followed by a second home for women and men.
The company expanded to Coshocton County in February 2021 and Morrow County in spring 2023.
From prison to podium
Smart said the biggest challenge in her Riverside journey is the recent change in Ohio Recovery housing requirements. Specifically, the perception that it is “only housing” and does not incorporate treatment.
“It’s been challenging for our referral sources to realize that we will still offer treatment, but all of it will be in our office and not in the home,” she said.
Smart also grapples with the for-profit vs. nonprofit challenge. Several local centers, such as Behavioral Healthcare Partners and The Freedom Center, are nonprofit. Riverside Recovery Services is for-profit.
Being for profit was not an issue in Lawrence County.
“It’s challenging getting people to understand that it’s not about the money, it’s about the services we’re providing to our clients,” Smart said.
“The challenge is getting them to understand that it does not matter if you’re for-profit or nonprofit. We’re still working together to make a difference.
“I think we’ve worked hard to overcome that stigma between for-profit and nonprofit,” she added.
Smart said one of her proudest accomplishments was in 2023 when the Chamber of Commerce named Riverside Recovery Services Business of the Year.
“It was a recognition that a behavioral health program could be recognized for our work in the community,” Smart said.
Her second proudest accomplishment was receiving the 2020 Women in Business Leadership award from the chamber.
Smart said the leadership award brings the phrase “from prison to podium” to mind.
“It didn’t matter where I had been,” she explained. “I was able to show other women that it doesn’t matter where you have been, you can do anything you want.”
Riverside Recovery Services: The next generation
Over the past 9 ½ years, all three of Smart’s children played a role in the company in some fashion. Her son, Flint Postle, has been with Riverside for seven years and has served as its clinical director for the past 1 ½ years.
“Flint’s been the one who really has taken a hold and grasped it and wants to see it continue,” Smart said.
Postle acknowledges he will take on a whole new project as he moves into the executive director role.
“There’s some newness to it, but the flip side is genuine excitement,” he said. “I’ve seen what Riverside has done in the past five years in Mount Vernon.
“I know there’s always more that we as an agency can do because we recognize that when it comes to addiction, it’s never over, and it’s always changing.”
Challenging aspects of the transition include recognizing that things have changed since joining Riverside seven years ago.
“Addiction is different, the framework is different,” Postle explained. “The challenge is how as an agency can we adapt and continue the work necessary to fight addiction in our community.”
Noting that things became chaotic with COVID-19, Postle said sometimes people and agencies become distracted from their mission.
He wants to return to the roots of what Riverside is known for: being an agency committed to healing individuals, families, and the community.
“I am grateful for everything that Amy has done for the past nine years, but I am excited to take the baton, take the foundation that has been set and build something more meaningful that continues to increase the impact on our community and the people we have the privilege to work with,” Postle said.
‘Thoroughly enjoyed the journey’
Before going to prison, Smart bounced from job to job, admittedly not knowing her purpose. Incarceration helped her find it.
“Riverside is my purpose. Riverside over the last nine years has given me a purpose like I have never known before,” she said.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed this journey, even though it has come with many sleepless nights and many long hours.”
Now, she is ready to stay home and play with her puppy.
“And I’m definitely going to sit down and write my book,” Smart said, adding that she chronicled events along the way.
“People have said it’s not often people come out [of prison] and turn their life around.”
Smart officially retires on Oct. 1. During the next month, she will ease into it, taking more days off and letting her internal alarm clock wind down.
“It will be hard not to be at the office,” she admitted. “I think I am in a place where I am ready, and Flint’s ready. That’s a good place.
“I’ve talked about retiring for a while, made jokes about it. But I am ready to let him take the reins.”
